Back to the Blackstone Fortress

The better half was off for a day, so I tried to organise the collective for a game … unfortunately many were unable to make the day. However Steedo and Sylon could make it. After much dithering Blackstone Fortress was decided up on - hopefully with a game of Imperium Classics to finish. 

We decided to have a “recap” expedition into the Fortress and pick the heroes to take in. Steedo took the Amallyn Shadowguide (Eldar), Sylon Pious Vorne (the fanatic with a flamer thrower) and I took the Janus Drak -rogue trader. The 4th hero were the ratling twins Rein and Raus. We had a couple of challenges, then an ambush!

Above is the field of play - Spindle drones and Ur-guls were are opponents. We charged about with some good shooting to take out the enemies and had a good recap of the rules. We followed up with a couple more challenges, where we pushed are luck … which was a mistake because a couple of characters lost enough health so we weren’t able to visit another challenge in the fortress. 

We now decided that we would go on a stronghold mission - this meant taking characters with clues (4 are needed to go to stronghold). The chosen this time were Espern Locarno the Navigator, Thaddeus the Purifier, Dahyak Grekh (Kroot tracker) and Pious Vorne (for a second run of the evening). 

We read (scan) the rules and decided that to try and run 4 exploration cards before hit the stronghold would be suicide and would take too long. We were up against Obsidius Mallex and all of his minions (2 chaos warriors, 4 beastmen, 4 Negavolt cultists, 14 traitor guardsmen and 2 rogue psykers. However the guard and Obsidius (marines and psykers) could move until we moved into a chamber … the guard would shoot if we stayed in particular hexes at the end of an action. 

The game started well - we cleared out the beastmen and cultist pretty easily. Steedo came up with a plan to move Obsidius towards us using Espern’s power … we think we played this right… so we could blast him to pieces at range. This worked … however we were taking damage from the guard … we moved quickly from a position of looking like the whole team would get out …to would any of us get out! Espern in a moment of madness or over confidence by Steedo, who thought his psychic shield would save him was blasted to bits by a Chaos Space Marine … Thaddeus was overwhelmed by reinforcements of traitor guard. 

After spending a turn trapped in the grinding room Dahyak and Pious made a sprint to the escape portal!

Then we had to deal with the aftermath … Thaddeus survived his roll on the death table … unfortunately Espern Locarno was less lucky and now has a mortis card meaning he is dead and out of Blackstone Fortress …

The check through also picked up that the traitor guard could have been more active if the explorers were more visible to them … that could have made it a bit tougher, as would actually looking at the legacy cards in the little wallet … but set up was a bit rushed for some reason - I just wasn’t on it. Anyway good fun was had I am planning another visit to the Fortress soon - we need more clue tokens to get back to a stronghold … I will to much better prep next time. 

I also found some rules for Kill Team 2019 for Blackstone Fortress characters and for using the tiles … I think that will be developed (by me … GW are 2 editions on by now). 

As it was we didn’t manage a game of Imperium Classics - another time. 

Morts

Blackstone Fortress - the campaign creeps on ….. slowly

The collective managed to get together (I wasn’t ill) at mine and move the Blackstone Fortress campaign on a tad further. I decide to play any characters we had used recently, so DK was Janus Draik (he really wanted to be the robot again), Sylon was Amallyn Shadowguide, Steedo was the Ratlings - Rein & Raus and I was the navigator Espern Locarno.

Tiger-King was meant to be coming along, but some DIY set off his allergies - so bailed on us. But I suppose I didn’t have to be the baddies. 

We played a combat first against the Ur-Ghul - and with Steedo’s efficient use of rhe grapling hook wizzed about the board picking up the searchable items - which turned out to be 3 of the items to make the characters inspired - so that was a win. 

The first combat - we did some good tag teaming to kill off the monsters before they could do any damage. Then we got out of there. 

The second encounter was a challenge - where DK’s character picked up a wound, but it was pretty manageable compared to some. 

The third encounter was another combat - this time against the Negavolt cultists. DK with his wound rushed forward to grab a clue - still going on about his wound and to be fair being right about a recovery roll being a character action. I rushed out to get support DK and promptly picked up 2 wounds - one being critical. Anyway we managed to fight off the cultists, grab the treasure and run. 

A this point we called it on Blackstone and had a cheese break after sort the Precipice part of the game - buffing up the Amellyn. Again we were lucky with the hostilest we faced, as although they are tough there is a limit on the number of miniatures that the explorers have to face. The masses of traitor guard generally seem to be a tougher proposition. 

I retrospect I think we should have played the next encounter, I believe we have enough clues to attack a stronghold - which is exactly what the next game will be. Although will the team be tough enough. Should be interesting. 

The cheese break was supplied by Steedo - and was very pleasant. The plan was to get Valhalla to the table, with the Valkyrie expansion. 

However, my wife came back from watching Bridgerton with Mrs Steedo and things just turned into nice chat around the breakfast bar - the box for Valhalla got to the table, but no further than that. A good evening of banter and Blackstone Fortress. 

For Father’s Day with a little help from me (and Mrs Morts) I got the following from my absent daughters - thing 1 and 2. 

Another go at getting my pallet to see if it likes whiskey - last time I was getting there. Upped the anti with single malt this time. A toblerone because you can’t go wrong with a tolberone - end of. 

A Kings of War Drakon Lord - because I liked the miniature and I am a bit worried about how the dragon model I have will stand up to play as it is pretty old - nice miniature though. 

Morts

Some games over the weekend - Munchkin and Blackstone Fortress

Steedo and my wives were away for the weekend, so the collective got together for a few games. On Friday evening virtually a full turn out descended on Steedo’s to play - Munchkin. I thought we were going to play a new game - such as Descent, Hansa Teutonica .. or a classic  like Eclipse, Ticket to Ride Europe, Powergrid or Nine Worlds - but I think Steedo was fussed on learning rules, so when I suggested (half jokingly) Munchkin, he went for that. The game played fairly quickly, but did end up being the usual backstabbing, trying to stop others winning affair all of the competitive games are reduced to. I think Snake-eyes, went for the win first only to be thwarted and killed and reduced to level 1 (the starting point of the game about 2 hours earlier) - DK would have flipped the table if he could of (but Steedo’s dining room table is pretty heavy), so threw dice at Steedo instead, when his character was killed and back to the beginning… he was not happy. Then as usual Steedo went in for the win - which Sylon and myself were unable to prevent as we had used up cards block the others attempts. The overall consensus (although to be fair Sylon was not too keen on the game - but I think it grew on him) was that Munchkin was a light and vicious little game which shouldn’t be taken too seriously - there was plenty of banter around the table and once we were sorted on the rules, it was pretty quick. Good with drink and plenty of beige snacks. I think we will play again when there is a few of us and we don’t want to much AP.

On Saturday evening DK and Steedo turned up at mine and played Blackstone Fortress. This was the second game in the campaign that Tiger-King and I started months ago (possibly last year). I have to say the game did actually zip long pretty well. The explorers this time were Taddeus (the priest), Pious Vorne (Queen of the flames), Dahyak (the groot) and UR-025 - which turned out to be a pretty balanced team. 

We whipped our way through 6 out of 8 possible encounters, before calling it quits (2 characters had taken some serious damage at this point) and returning to Precipice, with plenty of arcotech to spend and enough clues to attack at stronghold - I am not sure the team is buffed enough for this yet, but on the next session we will have to decide. We did have a couple of rules issues - we had a couple of combat encounters with just Spindle Droids (the other combat was just Negavolt Cultists), and not enough models to fight (I suppose we could have proxied/counts as), who we cleared out pretty quick. And once we had wiped everything out, but the event roll hadn’t produced the exit point, we just called those after doing a round of reinforcement rolls. I think we were lucky not to be hit with the Traitor Guard, who can mob your explorers - I think Tiger-King and I suffered with that last time out. 

We now have a couple of inspired characters, but the threat level is 1 and we now have to roll to end a session. Next time we have to get the navigator out - I’m not sure that he has been used. 

A couple of good evenings of games. 

More Blackstone Fortress Chaos ….

To make up a Blooded Kill Team and unit sizes for Xenos Rampant, I got hold of some more miniatures. They need varnish and in the case of the cultists some tufts too.

A couple of cultists of the Abyss. 

Traitor Marksman, Gunner with melta and Corpseman. 

Traitor Flenser (converted from a cultist), Trench sweeper and gunner with Plasma.

Traitor Ogryn and Enforcer as the muscle for the Blooded. I decided to match the bases to the ones for Blackstone guard for consistency. 

Quite happy with these - could be better, but good for the table. 

Morts

Blackstone Cultists - part 2

With a little bit of effort I have completed the last 4 Cultists of the Abyss from the expansion with no cards or way of adding to the base game … anyway these will probably become the cannon fodder for a Chaos Space Marine Kill Team. 

Leader and dangerous flamethrower guy. 

A coupe of grunts - standard cultists you could say. 

Not bad job on these - no speed paints used.

Basing and varnishing to do. Will probably put the Chaos Space Marines on the painting table next .

Morts 

Blackstone Cultists

I have had a go at painting the Blackstone Chaos Cultists I received for my birthday. 4 out of eight painted - 2 heavy weapons and a couple other nasties. 

Pretty pleased with these but I have to decide on the basing - do I do the basing for Blackstone (ie black with blue highlights) or do I go the the Sandy style I use for kill team? 

I don’t have rules for the Cultists in Blackstone but I do for Kill Tram , so they are more likely going to be support for the Chaos Space Marines. 

I have invested in the starter set of Speed Paints by army painter, so will have to experiment with those at some point. 

Should be having some of the collective over this week to have a go at Judge Dredd - Helter Skelter (and if time Raiders of the North Sea).

Morts

Blackstone Fortress - start of the campaign.

So last night Tiger King and myself sat down and started the Blackstone Fortress campaign - “search for the hidden vault”. We picked a couple of tough characters each. Tiger King had Amallyn Shadowguide and UR-025, whisky I had Janus Draik and Pious Vorne. The expedition stared with 2 challenges which we were singular unsuccessful with - in fact due to forgetting the combat rules pious managed to pick up 3 grievous wounds … but she did pick up some archotech in the second challenge. 

We then had a combat session to complete- which meant I had to focus on getting the rules right - which we did (although we did forget a couple of reinforcement rolls at the start). 

The encounter was a fairly straightforward one with 2 units of traitor guard, which the ranger and robot made fairly short work of, where as I continued to roll badly …. Apart from high on the reinforcement table, so none turned up and average on the event table so that the escape lift turned up without too much effort. The Asuryani ranger (Tiger King) did snatch a discovery token from Janus, which seemed a little mean, but possibly in character for the campaign. 

After we had completed the combat, we had to end the expedition as Tiger King had to go home, so before the next game we have to do the Precipice stage for recovery and buying kit, before a new expedition. The early end might have an impact on the Legacy cards. 

Hopefully the group can get together before the end of August for the next round. 

Morts 

Blackstone Fortress - 2nd Play

A few days ago most of the collective gathered at the Tiger King’s for a game. He was recovering from an operation to remove some metal from his legs. DK had gone down earlier to play one of the Tiger-King’s many Kickstarters - some like a It’s a Wonderful Kingdom. Anyway they were still on turn 1 when Steedo and I arrived due to discussing the escalating conflict in the Ukraine. So we watched as DK won by the use of giant rats. Also around the same time Snake-eyes arrived to participate in the main event - Blackstone Fortress. 

With 5 of us I was playing the hostiles - we were also playing the stand alone version, so people have a grasp of the rules for when the campaign starts properly (next game. Snake-eyes was the Rogue Trader, DK was the ratling  twins, Steedo the eldar ranger and Tiger-King was the robot UR-2501. 

The first exploration card was a challenge which the team breezed through with Janus Draik getting 10 of the 12 points needed. 4 clues and 1 piece of archotech collected - might be a quick game.

The next card was an Ambush combat card - eek!

Unfortunately for the team I managed a succession of very good dice rolls - putting 3 critical hits on Snake-eye character and at least one on most of the other characters … this became a run for survival very little collection of objectives - although I think Steedo managed to pick up some archotech. The team staggered to the mag-lift and escaped. I had even forgotten to do the reinforcement rolls …

Around this time there was a break for dinner cooked by Tiger-King’s better half, of chicken, veggie curry and a dal. Accompanied with rice and naan bread. Very good it was too. 

Then we returned to the Fortress - would the team be able to get back from the brink. 

The simple answer was No. Unfortunately the hostiles were too hostile … the restrictions due to critical hits meant that the team simply didn’t have enough activation dice to deal enough damage to the critters of the Fortress. I also started roll well again and remembered the reinforcement rolls. A good job it was a practice game otherwise some of the characters might not have been available. 

I think that campaign system will add to the game as characters can get “tooled up” and the consequences of actions have a long term effect. 

As we finished Blackstone Fortress more quickly than expected, we had a go with Masquerade - this was a tense bluffing game, where you might not be who you think you are …. It was eventually won by Steedo, with DK annoyed that in my attempt to win, I allowed Steedo to win … rather than do something which might have allowed him (DK) win … we do seem to have a mentality one occasions of focusing on stopping others winning rather than go for the win ourselves. 

On Saturday I went for a wander around the moor. 

Lovely day - still managing a full pack!

Morts 

Blackstone Fortress - finally finished.

The last three explorers for Blackstone Fortress have been finished - a little later than planned (more than one self imposed deadline missed …). 

The Rogue Trader - Janus Draik

The Imperial Robot or Man of Iron - UR-025

The Asuryani Ranger - Amallyn Shadowguide

Overall pretty pleased with these - planning to get these to the table in the next week. 

With these done what to paint next?

Morts

Obsidius Mallex - Big Boss of Blackstone

I have managed to get a bit of painting done. All the baddies for Blackstone Fortress are now painted. 

The boss - Obsidius Mallex and his two hench Chaos Space Marines are done. I am fairly happy with these, but I think my painting skills are getting worse (could be the eyes or both). This has happened before when I have left Guard units til the end - so they can be the best, but what happens is the need to finish them and complete the job means they aren’t quite as good as I would have liked them to be (a bit rushed) …. 

The Fortress is now full populated with its denizens - three heroes to go. 

Morts

Blackstone Fortress - first play through

So on Wednesday evening Steedo came over we had a bash at the Blackstone Fortress. We play a one off expedition to get a hang of the rules before we tried the full on campaign for the hidden vault, with the rest of the collection. 

We picked the 4 explorers, from the 5 (well 6) I had painted. We had Esperanto Locarno, Thaddeus the Purifier, Dahyak Grekh and Pious Vorne (Rien and Raus were left in the box, as we thought that the extra move might have to much for our tiny brains). 

I set up before Steedo arrived as much as I could - popped all the little bits of cardboard out and sorted the cards out - I may have made an error here as I set up for the campaign, but I think I should have kept some of the baddies in (such as the beastmen and rogue psykers, but to be honest we found it pretty tough as it was) for the one off game. The victory conditions were that we had to get 4 clues and 8 points of archotech. 

The first two encounters we had were challenges - the first what appeared to be a simple move across a bridge using agility and defence rolls, where we managed to hobble our explorers with some wounds, the second challenge I can’t recall, but at the end Esperanto Locarno had completed his secret agenda and was now was using the inspired profile.

The initial combat board - lots of traitor guard and a spindle drone to try and thwart the galant heroes. This was a tough combat and took us the longest to complete as we were learning the rules and how the hostiles act.

The explorers finally managing to extract them from the chamber - I believe that Pious Vorne managed to get herself out of action. But she survived the recovery phase and improved her vitality, so could continue the expedition - we weren’t convinced that we actually gone the rules right here, but went with it as we were enjoying the game.

The second combat was a little easier. With spindle drones and negrovolt cults as opponents. 

We tried a couple of different tactics this time - an all out assault on the hostiles, a dash for the discovery markers and to summon the exit chamber rather than wait for one in the event roll.

This worked a treat - all baddies killed - more archotech collected (we ended up with 11 points, we only needed 8) and up to 3 clues - only one more needed for the win. We also discovered that we had possibly over used the support from the ships - never mind fog of war and first time play through. Picture above shows the explorers in the exit chamber and the spindle drone reinforcements a long way away. Confidence was up we would bear the game. 

The final combat started off like the second so we thought - this time cultists and traitor guard.

Unfortunately this time the dice gods were against us so although we got the final clue Esperanto was beaten to a pulp by the cultists and needed to use the destiny dice to move, Dahyak Grekh received 3 grievous wounds and was in a bad way - Thaddeus picked up 2 more wounds … 3 characters and 2 dice and the destiny dice to move them ..: with a debris twist on the encounter card meaning that moving across cover was an extra point of movement. 

At this point Pious Vorne’s flamethrower became very effective as she first incinerated the cultists then the traitor guard. One of the characters pick up the final clue from a discovery card, so we were all set for the win if all the explorers could get to the exit ….This was a really tense ending to the game as if one character died the expedition would be over and we would have lost having collected the booty. We needed the event roll and the reinforcement rolls to go our way …

Which on the whole they did - I think we need to check the placement rules for the traitor lasgunners as they arrived in the final turn. But Steedo and I will take the hard fought win … very close.

We really enjoyed the game and reckon the campaign will be good fun - I plan to play another few rounds with the stand alone set up with the other heroes when they are painted (before February), to see how they play - will also include the beastmen and psykers (and the chaos marines if they are painted). 

We like the destiny dice mechanism, but need to check the hostiles rules, and explorer recovery during an expedition - other than that I think we got the rules pretty much right (apart from using the ship support a couple of times when it should have only once during the expedition). I think having a hostile player might make the game a little bit more challenging if they go for it.

Hopefully we will see the campaign for the Hidden Vault play out in 2022.

Happy new year, let’s hope that 2022 is an improvement on the last couple.

Morts

Blackstone Traitor Guard 2

With a bit of effort I have painted the second lot of traitor guard for Blackstone Fortress. 

Just got to varnish them but all done now. Might be the last painted before Christmas Day. 

Only the chaos space marines and 3 heroes to go before Blackstone is all painted. 

Seasons greetings. 

Morts

Blackstone and Kill Team stuff

Work has been busy and the painting mojo has not been with me. And now we are in the festive season evenings are at a premium …

For Blackstone Rein and Raus have been painted. 

These weren’t my favourite to paint - I didn’t get into a rhythm with them - but they are done. Just an couple of heroes, traitor guard and chaos space marines to go. 

Also some barricades for Kill Team. 

Two games now ready to play.

I did ask the collective if anyone fancied a game this evening … but as I said earlier the festive season is taking its toll on availability. Might have to fly solo. 

Morts 

A little painting done

I have managed to paint a Blackstone Fortress adventurer - the Navigator. 

I am pleased with how the purples came out - I think that I now have enough adventurers to actually play Blackstone Fortress - perhaps a go before Christmas.

Below 5 regiments of 15mm Saxon cavalry for Age of Reason games - well Maurice or GaPa. At the back are 3 regiments of dragoons - some of which are survivors of my old British and Dutch armies sold off long ago.

The cuirassiers are refugees from the old French army  - all of these are Roundway miniatures. The standards are a little rough - but very small to paint. 

Morts 

More Blackstone Fortress

With a little effort I have completed the painting of a few more inhabitants of the Blackstone Fortress. 

First up a couple of explorers.

The missionary zealot - Pious Vorne. 

Kroot tracker - Dahyak Grekh

Then a couple of the denizens - Rogue Psykers. 

Just varnish and bases to be done. 

Unfortunately I don’t have enough explorers to try’s game yet as it needs 4 to play. I have also finished all the miniatures I had assembled so far. But on the plus side there are only 6 (5 playable) explorers, 7 traitor guards and the 3 chaos space marines to go. 

I am hoping that even with distractions I should be able to complete the game before Christmas - and should be able to trial it possibly before the end of the summer …

Morts

First Blackstone Explorer

It has been a quiet couple of weeks painting wise with the football on - a disappointing result for England I the end, but the boys done good to get there. More than a bit embarrassing how some of my countrymen reacted to the result and penalty takers - a sad reflection of their ignorance. 

I was out on a virtual Ten Tors expedition on Exmoor at the weekend- a July downpour overnight then a 16 mile hike up and down the valley around Tarr Steps. Discovered the tent is still waterproof (a good thing), one of my walking boots has a leak …. and that after not walking all day with a pack for a few years - it is really quite tough. I have to admit to being quite knackered afterwards.

However I have managed to paint up one of  the explorers for Blackstone Fortress - the Ministorum Priest. 

Not a bad job - I am not used to painting individuals much so I found him a challenge - I am not totally happy about the robes, but I intend to finish the miniatures for Blackstone before Christmas and anymore distractions …. Such as the new version of Kill Team. 

Morts

Blackstone Update and mischief....

 

So I have finished the first 7 of the Traitor Guard for Blackstone Fortress - taking the painted miniatures to 23 out of 44. So over 50% done. Will put together a couple of the heroes now (I did put together the Ad Mech Enginseer Techpriest). 

I have also started to put together this SST Arachnid mantis bug - I think I will be drilling and pinning it as it seems a tad delicate. 

Then after saying wouldn’t bay anything until I had completed Blackstone Fortress - Warlord Games were selling these at 50% off! I couldn’t let these go.

Something for Kings of War/Oathmark and Kill Team/Starship Troopers. 

Morts